The present invention relates to a device and a roller for peeling or shaping products. The following describes the invention primarily in connection with peeling potatoes. However, it should be noted that this is only an example of an application of the invention. The invention is thus also applicable to peeling or shaping other products, such as carrots or apples. The invention is also applicable to shaping French fries, for example.
It is previously known to utilize a device having rotating rollers for mechanically processing potatoes. Such a device is described in EP-664 679 B1. This known device comprises parallel, rotating roller pairs having a grinding surface. The rollers comprise a substantially cylindrical body provided with axially adjacent peripheral grooves. The peripheral grooves in a roller pair are arranged opposite each other, so that a number of outlet openings forms for the processed potato balls to fall through.
A drawback in this known device is the constant size of the end product. Irrespective of the size of the raw material fed in the device, the end product will always have the same size. The reason for this is that the size of the end products is dependent on the dimensions of the peripheral grooves arranged in the rollers. The processing of the raw material does not stop until the raw material is processed to a size allowing the products to fall through the outlet openings between the rollers. The only way to obtain an end product having a different size is to replace the rollers with other rollers that have peripheral grooves of different dimensions. However, in practice, this is an expensive and laborious way to try to obtain end products having different sizes, since it requires an investment in rollers having varying dimensions and relatively laborious measures in replacing the rollers.
The object of the present invention is to solve the above problems and to provide a solution for easier and more inexpensive way to obtain end products having varying sizes. This object is achieved with a device for peeling or shaping potatoes or the like products, comprising a frame, at least a first and a second grinding roller rotationally supported by the frame, at least one of the rollers comprising a grinding surface intended to contact the product during peeling or shaping, the grinding rollers being arranged substantially parallel adjacent to each other for peeling or shaping the product, and a driving device for rotating the grinding rollers, the first grinding roller comprising a substantially cylindrical body provided with axially adjacent peripheral grooves. The device of the present invention is characterized in that the device comprises means for adjusting the distance between said first and second grinding roller, and that the second grinding roller comprises a substantially cylindrical body provided with axially adjacent protrusions, the peripheral grooves of the first grinding roller and the protrusions of the second grinding roller being dimensioned and arranged relative to each other such that the protrusions at least partly extend into the grooves when the distance between said first and second grinding roller is minimized.
The invention also relates to a roller usable in the device of the present invention. The roller for a device for peeling or shaping potatoes or the like products comprises a grinding surface intended to contact the product during peeling or shaping, and a substantially cylindrical body comprising adjacent peripheral grooves. The roller is characterized in that the substantially cylindrical body is provided with axially adjacent protrusions.
The present invention utilizes a roller provided with protrusions. Herein, protrusions refer to sections having a larger diameter than the diameter of the other parts of the roller. The use of such a roller together with a known roller, i.e. a roller comprising axially adjacent peripheral grooves, provides a solution allowing variation in the size of the end products by adjustment of the distance between the rollers. The adjustment of the distance between the rollers results in a variation in the dimensions of the outlet openings defined by the protrusions and the grooves, which again results in a variation in the size of the end product. Accordingly, the present invention enables the achievement of end products having varying sizes by the use of the same equipment, i.e. the same rollers and device.